Physician failed to provide patient with cancer screenings

A 65-year-old man was belatedly diagnosed with cancer of the sigmoid colon, which caused his premature death.

From 2002 through 2006, he was a patient of the defendant. It was undisputed that during this time, the defendant neither offered nor performed a complete physical exam, including but not limited to colon rectal cancer screening.

In June 2006, the patient presented to the hospital with complaints of abdominal pain for the past several hours and no bowel movement for several days. An abdominal pelvic ultrasound showed free air, while a CT scan confirmed free intraperitoneal air consistent with a perforated bowel.

The patient was taken to the operating room emergently and underwent exploratory surgery, which detected the stage IIIB colon cancer. The disease was later found to have spread to his lungs. His condition deteriorated and he died in April 2007.

Plaintiff’s counsel claimed that the defendant was negligent in failing to offer or perform annual colon cancer screening in the form of a digital rectal exam, fecal occult blood cards, lower gastrointestinal series and sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy from 2002 to 2006.

The defendant acknowledged that the standard of care required colon cancer screening, and that if he had been the patient’s primary care doctor, he should have conducted the screening test. However, he claimed that the patient was only seeing him for blood pressure checks, and did not want a “full PCP.” He was a private-pay patient and had declined any further medical services.

The case settled prior to trial for $1.5 million.

Type of action: Medical malpractice
Injuries alleged: Colon cancer resulting in death
Date: June 2011
Submitted by: Andrew C. Meyer and William J. Thompson, Lubin & Meyer, Boston (for the patient’s family)